A mansion perched atop a 5,000-foot ridge in the North Carolina mountains and offering views of Grandfather Mountain, other peaks and even uptown Charlotte, sold for a record price this month.
The $14 million sale of the lodge-style estate in Linville — about 82 miles northwest of Charlotte — topped all other home transactions in state history, according to Florida-based Premier Sotheby’s International Realty.
Marilyn Wright of Premier Sotheby’s Asheville office exclusively marketed the home.
The sale was completed on Oct. 8, Avery County tax records show, two weeks after Tropical Storm Helene devastated large swaths of the mountains.
“The commitment to invest in premier mountain estates highlights the unwavering confidence in the market’s recovery” from Helene, Budge Huskey, president and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty, said in a statement.
Called Lazy Bear Lodge, the 5.6-acre estate is located at 1907 Flattop Cliffs Drive in the gated Linville Ridge community.
Chuck Weber, listed in Avery County tax records as the former owner of the home, died at the lodge in June 2021 at age 73 after battling cancer, according to his obituary.
READ MORE: See more of the NC mountaintop home with jaw-dropping views
Weber amassed a fortune building luxury apartments in Fayetteville and other communities, his family said in the obituary. He also lived in Fayetteville and Ponte Vedra, Florida.
Public records identify the buyer of the estate as Florida auto magnate Alan Jay Wildstein. A performing arts center in Avon Park, Florida, is named after him.
The North Carolina estate has “unbelievable” views, agent Marilyn Wright of the Asheville office of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty told The Charlotte Observer when she listed the estate for $17 million in 2022.
Agents Natalie Earnhardt and Josh Aldridge in the Linville Ridge office of Premier Sotheby’s brought the buyer to the transaction.
Owner paid $1.2 million for the home
Weber bought the estate for $1.2 million in 2018 from Scottsdale Corp., a Florida-based investment company that has other property holdings in Avery County, according to the tax assessor’s office.
Weber bought a more-modest home on the site, which explains the lower price he paid, a spokeswoman for the Avery County tax assessor’s office told the Observer in 2022. He razed the home to build his estate.
Waterfall, pavilion on ‘an entire mountaintop’
Wright, the listing agent, told the Observer in 2022 that Weber significantly increased the value of the property by purchasing and incorporating three adjoining parcels.
“It’s an entire mountaintop,” she said. “It’s breathtaking.”
And Weber installed millions of dollars of artwork in the home, millions of dollars in statues on the property — 34 in all — and millions of dollars in custom furnishings, Wright said.
Besides its 340-degree views of peaks in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the mansion includes an extensive Western art collection spanning three centuries, European antiques and handcrafted Adirondack elements, according to Premier Sotheby’s.
A two-story waterfall graces the entrance to the home, which also has a separate 3,000-square-foot party pavilion and a “Hobbit-esque” guest house.
The 1,006-square-foot guest house and exercise home are carved into the side of the mountain with decking overlooking the forest.
According to a Sotheby’s news release in 2022, the five-bedroom, five-bathroom lodge includes “intricate woodwork with cypress post and paneling, golden birch and poplar and cherry barks that complement locally sourced stone.”
Detailed designs
Lazy Bear Lodge has a 25-foot-high timber-framed great room; a gourmet kitchen with custom alder cabinets by Banner’s Cabinets; and a dining room with a custom mesquite dining table by Taber & Company, custom chairs by Century and John Coleman’s Addih-hiddisch, and a Hidatsa Chief bronze sculpture.
A reading room overlooks a custom wrought steel railing sculpted by Kevin Clark.
“Every feature and work of art was so detailed in design,” Wright, the Sotheby’s agent, said in an email. “The setting of the home and gardens, as well as the folly house for social gatherings and the Hobbit house for practicing golf and daily workout.”
Weber and his life partner, Carol Strickland, “hosted the best of parties,” Wright said. “And since he has passed, Carol finds it doesn’t make sense for her to keep the home. It needs to be enjoyed to the fullest.”
Strickland is listed in county tax records as the seller of the estate.
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